Northeast Spider Identification: 11 Common Groups

Northeast spiders are easiest to identify by group, not species: look at the web (or the lack of one), where the spider was, and then the body. The NYSDEC brochure by Cornell entomologists Linda Rayor and Cole Gilbert notes that about 40,000 spider species are known worldwide, so the practical goal is to narrow a spider to its group.

• Web or no web. Whether there is a web, and its shape, is one of the strongest clues. Round wheel webs belong to orb weavers, flat sheets to sheet web weavers and grass spiders, messy tangles to cobweb spiders (NYSDEC/Cornell).
• Place. Fishing spiders live near water, crab spiders hunt in flowers, and cellar spiders are common near ceilings in homes (NYSDEC/Cornell).
• Body. The shape of the abdomen, how sturdy the legs are and the eye pattern are often typical of one group. Web-living spiders are built differently from hunters that have to carry their weight while walking (NYSDEC/Cornell).

Anything with eight legs is not automatically a spider. Harvestmen (daddy-long-legs) and ticks are arachnids with only one body section; spiders have two (NYSDEC/Cornell).

These are the 11 species and groups the NYSDEC/Cornell brochure lists as most commonly encountered in New York, with sizes and extra details from Maryland DNR where it gives them.

• Cellar spiders (Pholcidae): extremely long, delicate legs and a narrow body; hang upside down in loose webs near ceilings. When threatened many shake in the web until they blur. The idea that they are extremely poisonous is an urban legend (NYSDEC/Cornell), and Maryland DNR says they are not known to bite people.
• American house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum, listed by Cornell as Achaearanea tepidariorum): the most commonly seen cobweb spider around homes; large, round, shiny abdomen, thin legs, hangs upside down in a messy cobweb (NYSDEC/Cornell). Females are mottled grey or tan, males tend to be reddish (Maryland DNR).
• Black and yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia): one of the largest, most conspicuous spiders in New York, in sunny fields and gardens; web with white zigzag silk, rebuilt each morning (NYSDEC/Cornell). Leg span nearly 2.5 inches, web up to 2 feet across (Maryland DNR).
• Nocturnal orb weavers (Araneus): build round webs where night-flying insects gather, often near porch lights; most are brown with two bumps at the front of the abdomen. The cross spider has white spots in a cross; the marbled spider lives in fields (NYSDEC/Cornell), and Maryland DNR notes marbled orb weavers sometimes turn orange near Halloween.
• Grass spiders or funnel weavers (Agelenidae): a flat sheet web that narrows into a funnel, often on low hedges and evergreens around buildings; brown, about three quarters of an inch long, with long spinnerets (NYSDEC/Cornell). Three rows of eyes (Maryland DNR).
• Sheet web weavers (Linyphiidae): under a quarter inch, among the most abundant spiders in vegetation; the bowl and doily spider and the filmy dome spider are local examples (NYSDEC/Cornell).
• Wolf spiders (Lycosidae): slightly furry brown or grey hunters with sturdy legs; females carry a round egg sac on the spinnerets (NYSDEC/Cornell). Just over an inch long, and they lack the violin mark of a brown recluse (Maryland DNR).
• Fishing and nursery web spiders (Pisauridae): look like wolf spiders but with smaller eyes and legs held wider to the sides; the female guards her egg sac in a nursery web (NYSDEC/Cornell). Nursery web spiders reach up to an inch with a dark stripe from the eyes down the back; fishing spiders have banded legs, and the dark fishing spider sometimes shelters in basements (Maryland DNR).
• Jumping spiders (Salticidae): large eyes, squat body, sturdy legs; often turn to look at you. The bold jumper (Phidippus audax) is the usual example (NYSDEC/Cornell).
• Crab spiders (Thomisidae): hold their legs out to the sides and walk sideways; many sit on flowers and can shift between white, yellow and pink over several days (NYSDEC/Cornell).
• Sac spiders (Clubionidae, Miturgidae): pale, with protruding spinnerets and dark fangs; no capture web, they wander and sometimes come indoors. Two yellow sac spiders, Cheiracanthium mildei and C. inclusum, are covered below (NYSDEC/Cornell).

Maryland DNR adds one more that hikers meet: the spined micrathena, the most common Micrathena in Maryland, with a spiky abdomen and webs at face height across trails. For orb weavers species by species, see the orb weaver identification chart.

Very few. Maryland DNR says spider bites are actually quite uncommon and most spiders bite only in self-defence; the sources name three spiders worth knowing.

• Black widow. The only native Maryland spider that is dangerous to people (Maryland DNR). Females are shiny black with a red hourglass on the abdomen, and they sit in webs in undisturbed spots on porches and in sheds (Maryland DNR). In New York the NYSDEC/Cornell brochure calls it extremely rare. The Spider ID community list for Pennsylvania includes the northern black widow (Latrodectus variolus).
• Yellow sac spiders. Cheiracanthium mildei and C. inclusum are small, pale yellow spiders and, according to the NYSDEC/Cornell brochure, the only spiders in New York that are moderately poisonous to people. Their venom can cause itchy or painful ulcerating sores that are slow to heal. The same brochure states that in New York, bites attributed to brown recluse spiders are almost certainly from yellow sac spiders.
• Brown recluse. Not native to Maryland, though on very rare occasions it stows away in packages from the Midwest and Southwest (Maryland DNR). University of Kentucky entomology places its native range in the south-central and Midwestern United States and says it is rare outside it. Maryland DNR lists five checks: six eyes in pairs, a dark violin shape on the head region, evenly light legs without bands, a body about 3/8 inch long, and no spines on the legs.

If you think a spider has bitten you, keep the spider if you can and get medical advice; the spider bite identification page has first-aid steps and the US Poison Help number. Maryland DNR adds that children, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system should be extra cautious.

Where you found the spider cuts the list down quickly. Matching the place to the group, using the NYSDEC/Cornell brochure and Maryland DNR:

• Corner of a ceiling, long thin legs, loose web: cellar spider.
• Messy tangle web by a window, round shiny abdomen: American house spider, or check for a red hourglass if it is shiny black.
• Large brown spider in the basement with banded legs: the dark fishing spider sometimes shelters in basements.
• Small pale spider walking on a wall, no web: sac spider.
• Small spider that jumps and turns to look at you: jumping spider; in autumn many build silk retreats on windowsills and in mailboxes.
• Round web by a porch light: nocturnal orb weaver; by day it hides in a curled leaf above the web.
• Funnel web on a hedge by the door: grass spider.

To check for wolf spiders in the lawn at night, the NYSDEC/Cornell brochure suggests holding a flashlight next to your head at eye level: their eyes reflect back as many silvery blue-green spots.

Season is a real clue in the north. The NYSDEC/Cornell brochure says spiders in New York's climate typically live only one year: most spend the winter as eggs, grow into adults in summer and die in fall. Some species instead overwinter as inactive adults under bark or stones or in window casements, protected by antifreeze in their blood, and finish their life cycle in spring.

This life cycle means the large, eye-catching adults of species that overwinter as eggs are a summer and early-fall sight. A spider seen in midwinter is likely one of the species that overwinters as an adult, or one living in a heated building.

Most of the checks above need a photo that shows the web or the setting as well as the spider.

• Take one wide shot with the web and surroundings, because web shape and place are the first clues.
• Take one close shot of the front of the body so the eye arrangement is readable; this is how a recluse (six eyes in pairs) is told apart.
• Put a coin next to the spider, or photograph it through a clear jar, so size can be judged.
• For any shiny black spider, photograph the underside for the hourglass.

InsectLens identifies a spider from a photo. For anything linked to a bite, keep the spider and show it to a clinician.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance, and every fact was checked line by line against the sources listed below. Each number, date and quotation names the organisation it came from. The page does not replace a clinician, a veterinarian or a professional identification.